Due to a serious case of blog fatigue, I’ve missed recent lactivist news.
Bill Maher has offered me an excellent opportunity to illustrate my comment to Carter this morning about overcoming evil with love. So while my original post here was a verbal smackdown (which was painfully easy, as sarcasm is one of my greatest strengths) I will try instead to point out some alternative viewpoints.
Maher opened his diatribe with some of the same old crap about not being able to eat in the presence of breasts (unless he’s at Hooters) implying that were he to engage in sexual acts in the dining area it would be as inappropriate as *gasp* feeding an infant.
He manages to devolve from Homer Simpson to Beevis and Butthead in a manner of seconds. In a slightly new twist he suggests that if he were paying the woman to breastfeed he might enjoy it more, briefly sparking hope that we won’t be broke forever. If he wears a gag, (and I don’t know, maybe a blanket over his head) he’s welcome to sit in our living room and watch away. It might be out of his price range.
He also took the whole, “it’s natural, but so is urinating” and twisted the dial to the extra sicko setting, comparing breastfeeding to masturbating. He was, in fact, so immature and unpleasant, I’m amazed anyone listened all the way to his “point,” which is what I’d really like to address. He starts working up to it here:
There’s no principle at work here other than being too lazy to either plan ahead or to cover up.
Oh, I can think of a few principles he’s missed- compassion, kindness, basic biology.
The principles at work here are about more than being prepared, or sitting in a restroom stall while nursing your baby. It’s about a climate of kindness and acceptance toward children. It’s about you shamelessly objectifying a woman’s body because you haven’t grown up. It’s about you, as a man, attempting to make rules about my body, unless my body is doing something to please you. It’s about comparing mothers to dogs, feeding a baby to sexual self-service, and caring for our children to exhibitionism.
It’s not fighting for a right it’s fighting for the spotlight you surely will get when you go all Janet Jackson on everyone and get to drink in the oohs and ahhs from the other customers because you made a baby, (smarmy pause) something a dog can do.
Yeah? You do it.
But herein lies the rub:
This isn’t really about women taking their breasts out in public, much as I’d like it to be. It’s about how petty and parochial our causes have become how activism has become narcissism. . . . it’s why there will be no end to this dumb war until there is a draft.
I’m a parent. One of my goals is to work toward a world where a draft is unnecessary. I want my grandchildren to wake up in a world where war is an online game, not a matter of daily life. My life, my children’s lives are diminished by ongoing war across our world. I combat that by attempting to raise thinking children. Children who understand that a person is more than a breast, more than a religion, more than a nationality. My job is complicated by people who believe I should hide away my children, their care and their challenges until it ceases to interfere with the random diner.
Nursing my child is one of many ways I nurture him. It’s one of the ways I teach responsiveness, reciprocity, communication and love. It has the added bonus of assisting him in learning self-regulation (a-hem, something needed on the Maher show) and boosting his immunity. Perhaps if he really learns these lessons, he will grow to be a force of reason and hope in the future world. When I venture into public I want to feel supported and connected in this momentous task, not mocked and belittled by immature idiots misinformed and confused individuals.
Maher closed with this gem:
and by the way there is a place where breasts and food go together. It’s called Hooters.
Well, then go there, Maher. At least I won’t have to worry about ever running into you.
Other coverage (heh) found at the lactivist and suburban oblivian, among others.